Constrained New England… RBN Energy

The always excellent RBN Energy has a nice piece on the problems of generating power in New England, here…

”…New England’s power sector in the past few years has been shutting down coal and oil-fired generation units and nuclear plants, and building new gas-fired units — and more renewables — to replace their capacity. And, as Figure 1 shows, that trend is continuing; by 2025, ISO New England (ISO-NE), the electric grid operator, estimates that 56% of the generating capacity in the region will be fired by gas (green bar in center-right of Figure 1), up from 45% in 2018 (yellow bar) and only 18% in 2000 (orange bar), while the shares held by nuclear, oil-fired and coal-fired power plants in 2025 will fall to 10%, 16% and 0%, respectively. Also, gas plants are running more frequently. In the distant past (pre-2010), plants fired by gas were typically used mostly during peak demand periods; now they often are replacing retired coal and nuclear plants that operated around the clock. In addition, gas units are being called upon to offset the variable output of solar facilities and wind farms.”

Notably missing is any discussion on the economic disincentives to import LNG from the Gulf due to Jones Act regulations…